Before dawn on Thursday morning, a Fort Worth police officer shot a man for refusing to drop a BBQ fork. The victim's injuries are thankfully not life-threatening.
Police rarely aim for a suspect's arm or leg because it is so easy to miss - shooting means shooting to kill. And while it's wrong to disobey police commands, refusing to drop a fork should not mean risking a death sentence, especially if the victim isn't standing next to anybody they could threaten.
The officer shot the man because he was holding what the officer believed to be a knife (but was a BBQ fork) after pounding on the neighbor's door at 3:30 am, and did not drop the fork after repeated commands. The police have not accused the man of approaching the officer and did not say that anyone was next to the man - it appears that firing at him may have simply the officer's prefered method of "de-escalation."
This is not how Texans, or any Americans, want our police to behave. As one neighbor tearfully told CBS DFW, "I'm just thankful to God that we're not talking about a dead person."
WBAP reports that a grand jury will investigate the case. Dash-cam footage of the incident has not yet been released.
Tell the Tarrant County district attorney to ask the grand jury to indict the officer for assault if the dash-cam footage confirms that no one was standing near the victim, and tell the Fort Worth police: We as the citizens you're sworn to protect demand that you revise your policies about when to use firearms!
